A Second Helping of Denver’s offensive line play

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I wanted to go over some positive differences in the OL from last year to this. I’m going to touch on some run blocking and some pass protection.

Let me start by showing you something simple.

The initial image is from the first possession of the Pittsburgh game. It’s just typical - the interior players usually are in three-point stances, and the tackles - who more commonly have to kick-step back to defeat a side or a speed rusher - often like to stay in a two-point stance.

Nothing new there - I included it mostly just so that you know where people are starting from.

Next shot, look at the pocket they’ve formed. Note the number of one-on-one matchups: LG Zane Beadles (68) is still available to take on a late blitzer, because he isn’t needed to help out. That fact by itself is positive. Credit Willis McGahee (23) for handling his own assignment; the whole of the pass protection is excellent here.

Reversing the view, we can see that center J.D. Walton (50) is engaged on the play by Steve McLendon, who gets a hand in under Walton’s facemask. Walton puts his head to the side and keeps driving, keeping McLendon under control despite the small cheat. The ball is gone before McLendon can do anything. Nice, Walton. This is why John Fox likes to call him Trash Can - he does the dirty work.

How about Walton’s run blocking? Easy enough - let’s start with another series against Pittsburgh. With 5:48 left in the second quarter, Denver is at the Steelers 11-yard line, and it's 2nd and 1. Brandon Stokley (14) comes in from the side. Beadles and RG Manny Ramirez (65) will fire out, but that’s not what I want you to focus on here.

Look at Walton’s feet. Notice the right knee over the toe, and the straight left leg? He’s getting his power from that back foot, and he’s driving into his man.

In this next shot, you’ll notice that his feet are spread perfectly evenly, and his head is down and to the side. He’s pumping his feet, pushing his shoulder into his assignment, and driving his man back.

By putting his head to the side, he’s also keeping his body between the defender and McGahee. There’s no way for Walton’s defender to get into this play.

Okay, let’s finish with a run from the Falcons game. I wanted to show both the team blocking and to note how well Beadles pulls and Walton handles his one-on-one assignment; this play presents both. It starts with Denver at its own 10-yard line, 1st and 10, with 11 personnel.

Below is the end zone view, which lets you see how the Broncos block it: this is a pretty standard play with them.

At the snap, Beadles pulls from his left guard slot - Walton is in front of him and nearly hidden from view. RT Orlando Franklin (74) helps with Manny’s assignment (and has to hit above the waist to keep it legal) before moving to the second level (the linebackers, CBs, or safeties). Ryan Clady (78) has stepped back and is in position to handle the right defensive end, whether he’s speed or power rushing. He’s bending at the knees much more than at the waist, which had been problematic for him last year.

Notice below that Joel Dreessen (81) has a perfect leverage angle, feet to shoulders. Franklin is already coming off his aid to Manny and has moved to the second level. McGahee will follow Beadles through the hole, and Stokley has his man locked up as well; the Broncos require good blocking from their WRs.

This is where you want to be: The wide receivers are either locked up with their men or are - in Eric Decker’s (87) case - about to be. Clady and Walton have maintained their blocks, as has Ramirez. Beadles has taken out a man. Every player carried out his assignment. No one’s bent at the waist, shoulders forward. Franklin’s picking up a new target.

Just to review, then: the Broncos offensive line has overall been fairly strong in pass blocking. Manning’s been sacked five times, but not all are on the OL and Peyton’s often had plenty of time in the pocket.

The run blocking has been high in properly handled assignments. I look forward to seeing how RG Chris Kuper fares on his return: I expect it to take a couple of games to knock the rust off. The remaining four starters have all shown various degrees of improvement.

It’s good to see.

Every Bronco has performed their assignment perfectly, and McGahee is off to the races. The result? A 30-yard gain, from a play designed for 5-7 yards. This isn’t a matter of the Falcons making mistakes - it's of the Broncos doing their jobs. Walton, Clady, and Ramirez had the hardest jobs in one sense - they had to hold their blocks the longest, and all did so effectively.

Here’s the key point, from my view - in both the run game and in pass protection, Denver has been working together well as a unit. There’s visible improvement in the technical aspects for Walton in particular, and for Beadles as well. It’s true that PFF graded as the worst center in the league in 2011. It’s also true that he handled two different systems with two polar opposite QBs during that season.

We can’t ignore the fact that Beadles and Walton came on under difficult circumstances back in 2010. It’s often said (and almost as often ignored) that it takes three years to see what you’ve really gotten in a draft. This is the third year for both of them, and so far - while granting that the season is young - they’re looking substantially better in run and pass pro blocking than they did last year. Better knee bend, footwork, better leverage, and better technique.

I’ll be keeping an eye on these guys. I’m sure you will, too.

Learn to laugh at yourself. You will be ceaselessly amused. - Sri Gary Olsen

You can reach Doc at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow him on Twitter @alloverfatman

Doc offers a look at the Falcons roster in advance of Denver's Week 2 game in Atlanta tonight

I've always said the longer the OL plays together as a unit the better they get.. the trust factor builds on every play and communications gets better.. After a while there is no hesitation at all when things get strange because one knows the other will handle it..

the nest OL's tend to be the ones that have been together the longest and not all the time will they be loaded with pro bowlers..

Posted by Lonestar47 on 2012-09-23 00:07:19

Nice piece on JD Walton that backs up what is being said here: https://www.profootballfocus.c... Walton is showing the kind of power and anchor that we never really saw from him in those previous seasons, able to control people at the point of attack rather than being victimized. While it’s too early to jump to conclusions, the Broncos’ staff have to be thrilled with his performance so far this year after so many early-career struggles.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2012-09-22 12:33:30

Steve Williams Sure, it's happened a few times. The DLs have had new wrinkles for the OL and PM has new requirements of them. It's going to happen at times, particularly this early.

With only a two game sample size, I grade the games knowing that their play might improve or deteriorate over the year. What makes me comfortable is that JD and Zane are on spot more often than last year and they have played with better technique - the combination looks like visible progress to me. I've also seen them hand off rushers to each other smoothly on most plays that require it. There are some communication issues, but I can't swear to who's missed on it.

I don't usually look at the stats for the OL until after I do my film work. PFF's premium stats won't match the NFL's on all sacks (since they credit some to QBs, for example), but their info on overall pass and run blocking as as well broken-out as anyone's. What I found this week was that they had seen pretty much what I did: I have the tackles graded higher (and I strongly agree on the visible improvement of Franklin), Walton at the next highest and Beadles graded as a positive; substantially better than Ramirez, whose game against the Falcons wasn't good. It was the only thing that kept them from positive grades at each position. Since that's against two good teams with another coming up, I'm encouraged.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2012-09-22 10:35:55

For me the biggest impression has been Franklin. In year 2 he looks far better in pass protection added to an already impressive ability in run blocking.Walton and Beadles have clearly improved too but a couple of instances I have seen both hesitate with picking up blocks as if they havent been quite sure or havent communicated well. Is this something you noticed at all Doc Bear ?

Posted by Steve Williams on 2012-09-22 03:08:53

Great stuff, Doc. Thanks.

Posted by BlackKnigh on 2012-09-21 23:19:01

Thanks, guys. Just to clarify:

Pics 1 and 2 are sequential. Pic 3 was from the next play - and the view, as noted, is reversed. I lost some explanation in my edit, before Doug got it - my bad entirelyThe next two are sequential on Walton, the central issue in that series. The rest are sequential from the Falcon's game. It's confusing because I took images from both broadcast runs and took the best shots between them - they look out of sequence because the shots are from different angles.

Thanks for understanding - I'm still getting this process down. Doing a series on one or two players with multiple shots and series got confusing during my edit. Unfortunately, the video clarity on the coaches tape has been poor to terrible, and the broadcast shots varied on what they covered - they only follow the ball, so I tried taking the best shots and arranging them to show my point of emphasis. Not great results - back to the drawing board.

SteveS That's Wade with the Texans, and you're right - heck of a DC, much better than as a HC. His father, Bum, developed the modern one-gap 3-4, which Wade is the living expert on. Denver will really get a chance to see how the front guys are doing on both sides of the line.

Posted by Doc Bear on 2012-09-21 19:41:50

Thanks Doc,I thought about subscribing to the All-22, or whatever it's called, but decided against it because I already spend more time than I've allotted myself on NFL football. Besides, I come to trust you (and others on this site) to study it and give me the appropriate information which you have just done. Thank you.

What pleases me some is that, while at times I felt like the only person on this site that thought the current OL had an adequate upside, the improvement I noticed early this year surpassed my expectation (3rd year - NFL QB instead of glorified college one, etc). I expected a kind of pleasant progression this year to whet my appetite for next year and beyond.But, so far, they're doing surprisingly well in both pass protection and run blocking, as you've helpfully documented.

Perhaps, Beadles, more than the rest has surprised me. He's been much more mobile and much more effective in his blocks (notable technique improvement) than I expected at this stage.

I always kind of suspected that Walton and Franklin would eventually silence the critics and settle into their respective roles.

The improvement that I now look for is:1 decide between Kuper and Manny at RG;2 give Blake a year to develop as an NFL quality OL - at either guard or center.3 find another eventually starting quality OL for depth and eventual upgrade.

Posted by ivanthenotsobad on 2012-09-21 19:34:05

That was great, however, I was a bit confused. The bottom two pictures in the game against the falcons are not sequential. I think they need to be swapped. Also, on the first play you describe against the Steelers, the 2nd and 3rd pictures are from two different plays. If you look at the yardline the play is developing from you can see the 3rd picture (the one from the defensive view), is about 15 yards down the field. Sorry, I don't mean to be negative, but I was trying to correlate the plays from one shot to the next and things just didn't make sense. One thing I love about these explanations is seeing how fast the play unfolds. It's one thing to watch a video, but it's another to see a photo at the snap, and the next photo is 1 second later, but players are in completely different positions. This is what I try to correlate to see how things progress and how they relate to your explanations.

Thanks for doing these!

Posted by Rollston Frangopoulos on 2012-09-21 18:09:31

0-2, Steve.

Posted by Xtreme212000 on 2012-09-21 17:11:06

Yep, sure will. And like Dick Nolan, Bum Phillips isn't much of a head coach, but he's a helluva defensive coordinator

Posted by SteveS on 2012-09-21 16:40:23

Orlando Franklin is a beast. He is so physical, if you're a defensive player, you don't want to play Big O because he will hurt you.

Posted by RockyMtnThunder on 2012-09-21 16:22:24

Thanks, doc. Great stuff.

Posted by pubkeeper on 2012-09-21 16:19:30

J.J. Watt will prove a tough test.

Posted by RyanHennigan on 2012-09-21 16:02:59

Nice analysis Doc.

Posted by Joseph on 2012-09-21 15:39:03

Thanks, Doc. It's always enlightening to learn about the "big uglies" down in the trenches. Maybe it's just the change in perspective, but it looks like image 2 and image 3 are actually for different plays. Nice pocket in both, though.